Family friend: Man assaulted near Eastern Market is ‘fighter’

The block where Thomas Maslin was found Saturday morning. (Max Smith/WTOP)

WASHINGTON – A friend of the 29-year-old man who was severely beaten in Eastern Market says he is still in a coma two days after the attack. But family spokesman Vanessa Ford says Thomas Maslin, or TC, is “a fighter.”

“TC is fighting hard. He’s a fighter. He’s a great man and a great husband and we’re confident he’s going to pull through this,” Ford says in a statement. “But it’s going to be a long road ahead.”

D.C. Police say Maslin was found on the front porch of a house Saturday morning. The Washington Post reports he may have been struck on the back of the head with a blunt object hours earlier while walking home from a bar after attending a Nationals game.

Neighbors say he then stumbled from house to house looking for help.

Homicide detectives are investigating this as an aggravated assault, which is routine in serious assaults.

To possibly complicate the injury, Maslin has had brain surgery before, according Peter Young. Young is the principal of Brent Elementary School where Maslin’s wife, Abby, teaches.

Young says in a letter to the school’s community that Thomas Maslin underwent brain surgery and was in a coma when the letter was written sometime Saturday. Maslin is in critical but stable condition after a second surgery.

Police have reported no homicides this year in the patrol area around Eastern Market, but statistics show a rise in robberies. Armed and unarmed assaults are also up in the area.

Many neighbors say they aren’t worried about violence in the area.

“I’ve lived within a mile of this spot for the last 20 years and I’ve had one sort of hapless mugging myself, and I broke the muggers nose,” says Bonnie King-Tyler. “So I have always felt safe here. And the primary point that makes me feel safe is: every hour of the day and night there is someone on the street.”

She adds that “the bad guys would be winning” if she started to freak out over the assault.

“I think people who have lived here for a while know that it’s a place where you have to be careful, but the underlying sense is that it’s a very peaceful, quiet neighborhood, and that’s why people love it,” says Ivan Frishberg, an ANC commissioner for the neighborhood.